Foo Ramen, Downtown Victoria

I have a confession.  I ate Brussel Sprouts on Friday and I didn't hate them.

For years and years, my mother has been trying to get me to eat my sprouts. Just one with a meal when I was about six.  I was probably a pain, but eventually would eat one if soused in vinegar.  To take away that awful vegetal taste.  Then one was two. Then three.  I still hated the taste, but without eating some, it was no dessert.

Mum tried all sorts of ways to get me to meat sprouts.  Chopped up in a stir fry. Boiled.  Steamed. Baked.  Pureed. In a cream sauce.  Wrapped in bacon.  Stuffed inside a donut, sprinkled with chocolate flakes*.

They still tasted of sprouts.  Like Morissey's voice ruined The Smiths (ducks) for me. I don't care how good the music and the lyrics are, that whining is still there under or over it all.  The taste of sprouts pervaded all the tricks and preparation Mum tried.

So I grew up, and then could be an adult and refuse the Brussel Sprouts (or devil's little cabbages, as I like to know them as).  And Mum could have sprouts however she wanted with out a bratty son not wanting them.

And the on Friday, I went in Foo Ramen.  A tiny little space, dedicated to serving big hot bowls of ramen noodles, prepped in about half a dozen ways.  I'd just finished up at Discover Tectoria and wanted something fast and full of good stuff before heading home.  Ramen in good vegetable broth seemed like the answer.

So clearly I ordered the Pork Donburi special.  Rice, pork and greens.   I didn't read the list of greens to hard.  I may have seen 'sprouts' and just parsed them as pea shoots or bean sprouts.  When my bowl came out, I still didn't notice the little cabbages of doom.

Instead I coated the rice in a thin layer of the spicy, savoury sauce they have on the side there.  Spicy, slightly sweet but with big layer of savoury happiness.  Combined with the simple white rice, my stomach and taste buds were happy, and fast.

I tried the pork, which was crispy, shredded little pieces, generously piled against the heap of rice.  Also really good, with the crunch of the meat added to the flavours and textures so well.  The chimichurri paste also added to medley of good stuff going on.

Then I lifted a fork of the mixed greens up and noticed this quarter of a brussel sprout sitting there, spiked on the tines.  I frowned.  Why was this in my awesome meal?  What devilry had turned this awesome pork donburi into a flash back to one of the few foods that I can't stand? Where was the vinegar?

Sod it, I thought, and ate it.

Oh.  It wasn't crunchy and dense and full of a sharp, bitter tasting flavour.  It was soft, and really didn't taste of much except for a very mild kale.  I didn't hate the chef.  I didn't send it back for containing undercover Brussel Sprouts (the menu is pretty clear).  Instead I added a touch more of the chill paste, and polished of the whole bowl.  Including three or four more of these pan-fried sprouts.  And a big bunch of crisp pea shoots.

This doesn't mean you can feed me sprouts now.  But it does mean my taste buds may just have changed.

And I really should go back for the ramen sometime.

Foo Ramen Bar, 762 Broughton Street : http://www.fooramenbar.ca/

(*) Okay, I may be lying about some of these preparations.